Chicory is a flowering plant, a sibling to dandelions, with a tough hair stem, purple flowers and green leaves that are often used in salads and healthy foods. Its root is also sometimes used for a coffee alternative with similar taste and color.
Chicory is very rich in fibre, which as we know has a great effect on your overall gut health and microbiome. Researchers is increasingly interested in our fibre intake as there seems to be so many health benefits. The amount of recommended daily intake has increased to 30 g a day, which many people do not get.
Chicory can help us as it is especially rich in a type of a prebiotic fibre called inulin, which promotes the growth of the good bacteria in our gut, backed by several studies, showing that certain strains of bacteria multiplied when fed inulin. These guts bacteria are extremely important to us as they count for approximately 70 % of our immune system. Chicory is also beneficially linked to bowel movement improvement and constipation reduction, again due to the very high fibre content.
There are several other nutritious vitamins and minerals in chicory, such as Manganese, Vitamin B6, Potassium or Phosphorus, but our main reason to have added chicory to HEAL is the very beneficial fiber of which we have at least 15g in one meal, so half of recommended daily amount.